In this episode, I give multiple ideas for developing your own Depression Prevention Plan through talking about my own personal journey through two major life transitions – moving out of my wonderful home of 10 years and the passing of my beloved dog, Zoey.

I share my strategies for preventing depression and maintaining mental well-being. From practical tips to heartfelt reflections, this episode is a genuine exploration of resilience and renewal in the face of life’s uncertainties.

Referenced in this episode

Hypnosis Download: Love to Exercise

IB-Stim: Treatment for GI problems (also used for chronic pain and addiction problems)

Artist Effy Wild:   https://effywild.com

We Rate Dogs, a Non-profit to help dogs:  https://weratedogs.com

About Dr. Liz

Winner of numerous awards including Top 100 Moms in Business, Dr. Liz provides psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, and hypnosis to people wanting a fast, easy way to transform all around the world. She has a PhD in Clinical Psychology, is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) and has special certification in Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy. Specialty areas include Anxiety, Insomnia, and Deeper Emotional Healing.

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Do you have Chronic Insomnia? Find out more about Dr. Liz’s Better Sleep Program at https://bit.ly/sleepbetterfeelbetter

Search episodes at the Podcast Page http://bit.ly/HM-podcast

Help yourself with Hypnosis Downloads by Dr. Liz! http://bit.ly/HypnosisMP3Downloads

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A problem shared is a problem halved. In person and online hypnosis and CBT for healing and transformation. Schedule your free consultation at https://www.drlizhypnosis.com.

Listened to in over 140 countries, Hypnotize Me is the podcast about hypnosis, transformation, and healing. Certified hypnotherapist and Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Dr. Liz Bonet, discusses hypnosis and interviews professionals doing transformational work

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Transcript

Hey everyone. Dr Liz here. This is my last podcast recording from my home in South Florida, in Hollywood, florida. I actually forgot that I sold the chair upstairs I’m actually recording this standing up in the loft and I had an office chair and a desk up here in the loft. I have a desk downstairs and then I had like a dining room table and an art table downstairs. Now, this is not a huge home that I live in. It’s about 1600 square feet or so.

And when the real estate agent came for the first time to look at the house and tell me what I could do to get ready to sell it, her son came with her because he’s part of the business and he’s like you really like desks, don’t you? I was like what? Because you get so used to what’s around you you don’t even really notice it anymore. I was like, yeah, I guess I do, because then I also have a desk in my office. So that’s like one, two, three, four, five tables slash desk total. But there’s not room for that at all in the new house I’m moving to Jacksonville, florida, which is in North Florida.

Hollywood is in South Florida. The expenses are very, very different. It should be much cheaper to live in Jacksonville, florida, and I was looking for some place less expensive to move to. The insurance rates have just gotten outrageous down here. I think they’ve doubled since I bought the house, and I bought the house in 2014 and I’m recording this in 2024. Oops, sorry, I’m actually recording it in January 2025. So I think it’s almost doubled from when I originally bought it. As a homeowner, you expect your insurance rates to go up some, but certainly not to double, and I’ve had friends get quotes of triple or quadruple what their rate was, even from like the previous year. We’re all sort of stunned, honestly, and scrambling and figuring out ways how to just pay our insurance.

The point of this podcast is actually to talk about a depression prevention plan, because two weeks ago I also had to put my little dog, Zoey, down. She has been having all kinds of health problems and I think I got an extra like two years with her, definitely an extra year with her on medication, but it was just really getting bad and painful for her. So I made the hard decision to go ahead and put her down and I miss her so much, so so much. I am honestly crying every day, honestly crying every day, missing her and saying goodbye to my home that I’ve had for 10 years. It is becoming a house.

As I pack it up, I followed the minimalist movement forever. Honestly, I try to declutter along the way I think I’m pretty good at that. But what I realized is I really love the pictures of my kids and family. I love having little tchotchkes or knickknacks or chucharia around. That’s sentimental, that little presents or my kids have given me. Often that’s things that they found outside, because they know I love little rusty objects and like to collect them. Or sometimes they would bring me something like a little flower on their walk home or a hornet’s nest empty that they found and I like to save little things like that, and that is what makes a home to me. When I don’t have that around me, it does start to feel empty and actually a little depressing. So I’ve had the dog death and packing up my home that I’ve been in for 10 years.

I’ve been in South Florida for over 30 years, at the age of 22 for graduate school at Nova Southeastern University to earn my PhD in clinical psychology that was 1992, and I spent about four years away in between there. So at one point I had to move over to Portland Oregon to do my internship and finish my PhD. Then we moved to the Orlando Florida area so my ex-husband could finish his degree in engineering and then we moved back to South Florida. But besides that, like four-year stretch, I have been in South Florida since 1992.

Now I do want to leave. The kids are graduated from high school, my older ones graduated from college. I no longer have a joint custody agreement that keeps me here In Florida. You cannot move more than 50 miles from the other parent unless they consent to that. But my ex-husband and I made the agreement when we got divorced that we would not move away from each other and we both kept that agreement.

At some point I tried to convince him to move to North Carolina. He didn’t want to do that. Or up even like an hour north of Broward County. He didn’t want to do that. So I had to stay put and I made a really wonderful home for my kids. There were a couple years where we moved around, but then I really wanted to buy a place and when I bought this place I said I’m here for 10 years and I kept that commitment.

So it has been A wonderful home, full of happiness and joy, absolutely some tears along the way, but in general it’s been a wonderful home to have. So I’m having that and the dog’s death and my husband already moved to Jacksonville because his job transferred several months ago, so he’s been there. I found I was doing okay until until the dog was gone and now I feel like depression is creeping up.

Most people have a default either anxiety or depression that they go to, and mine actually tends to be depression, which is funny for an anxiety specialist, like I’m actually not a depression specialist in my practice I am an anxiety specialist, I think, because I don’t really get sucked into anxiety like someone does who. It’s their default. So I find it very enjoyable to work with and to help people move out of that, to help them with strategies, and when I work with someone, we actually make a relapse plan, typically Like okay, you have the tools, you know what to do If you feel it coming on. This is what we do.

And when I work with someone with depression, in my practice we do a depression prevention plan. This concept was originally presented to me by my own therapist many years ago, like if you feel it creeping up, this is what you do and that’s individual to people. So I’m going to tell you mine, but you have to figure out your own. The last time I implemented it was during the pandemic.

I had to do things to stop myself from spiraling down. To do things to stop myself from spiraling down, from getting more depressed, because I don’t want to go there, like no way. It’s an awful place to be, and without treatment it usually takes a year to two years to pull out of that. I think with treatment that goes faster. But if you can prevent that, why not?

So when I feel those feelings coming on, I know I have to exercise. I mean, I love to exercise anyway Ever since I made the hypnosis love to exercise that I sell on my website. You can go buy it if you want. But ever since I made that one, I really do enjoy exercising.

But when I know I’m starting to get depressed, I have to exercise. It becomes a daily thing, versus like oh okay, I can skip it today and I’ll do it tomorrow. Nope, not when these feelings are here. I have to take a brief walk outside every day. Now this used to be wonderful with the dog. I walked the dog twice a day. In her later years she couldn’t go more than around a small block. Okay, so like down to the mailboxes and back. My mailboxes are not in front of my house, since I live in a town house, but it was still twice a day that I like to walk her and she liked to sniff things and do her business.

So now that I don’t have her, I have to do that myself. I have to make sure I get outside of the house because I could easily stay in the house all day long, even though it’s sunny outside. I know some of you have a hard time believing that with the beautiful weather here in South Florida and it’s winter, but it’s the truth. So I have to make myself get outside of the house.

I color so grown up, coloring books like mandalas and patterns and things like that. That helps me stay centered. I do a lot of drawing these days and that’s a wonderful mind state to be in. I’m not really a beginner anymore.

My older daughter, who’s a fantastic artist, made this point to me. We were talking about how to make friends in a new city and she said, mom, you should take a drawing class. And I was like, oh, actually, I hadn’t thought of that. And she said, yeah, like, take a beginner one, even though you’re far beyond a beginner. And I was like whoa really. And she’s like, yeah, come on, I still struggle with faces, but I love to draw animals that make me laugh and make her laugh. So I’ll draw dogs and cats. And I drew her a little pig the other day. That totally made her laugh. So she said, like they’ll cover some basics and those will be fun for you, but you should totally do that. I said, okay, great, that probably is a wonderful way to make a friend with someone who’s interested in art.

So my point in saying that is I do quite a bit of drawing these days and that actually helps me feel good, but I have to make myself, make the time for it. So that becomes essential instead of like, oh, once a week I draw or something.

Last year I had the goal to draw once a month. Once I had that goal, it really ended up being at least once a week, sometimes a couple more than that, because once I start working on a piece, I hardly ever finish it in one sitting, even though it’s small. Like I’m using a I don’t know a small sketchbook about the size of a regular paperback book, but still I’m working on the piece of like highlights and adding this and background and things like that. So I end up drawing more because the piece starts calling to me like, oh, I need to work on this or do that or try it again. Sometimes I’ll try it again because I didn’t feel like I got something right.

I follow an artist called Effie Wild, love her and she does lives on her YouTube where you can actually ask questions. And I asked her do you still get the feeling of like, oh no, I messed up, like I’ve ruined this whole piece? Because sometimes I get that feeling. And she said I know exactly what you’re talking about. I used to get that feeling and I don’t anymore, because to me, if I get that feeling, it just means it’s not finished, like there’s more work to do on it, and I just loved that answer because it’s like oh yeah, I get that, okay. But I will say occasionally I’m like okay, I’m abandoning this one, I’m trying again, like I didn’t get the nose right on the dog or I’m trying to figure out how to do a little wiry fur versus soft fur or something like that.

So drawing becomes a part of my depression prevention plan.

I tend to isolate. A lot of people do when they get depressed. They don’t feel like they have the energy to call friends to go hang out, anything like that. And I’m in the two week countdown here and I’m moving. So I have friends that are like I want to see you, let’s hang out. And so I know part of my plan is to say yes to that, like yes, even if that means like you come over to my house and help me pack, versus like I don’t have the energy to go out to dinner.

Taking a shower every single day that’s another part of my depression prevention plan. If I have those feelings coming on, I know I cannot skip a shower. I will actually feel worse, so I make myself take a shower, even it’s a very short one.

Ideas I’ve seen over the years are going to the beach or taking a hike or taking a walk. Depends where you live, right, I’ve seen doing a puzzle, doing crafts, working in a wood shop or tinkering with a car. Those are some good ones.

Some people make the plan that they have to get dressed for the day so they can’t hang out in their PJs all day. When they get up out of bed they get dressed.

Another thing I’ve seen is making sure that they don’t watch too much TV or spend too much time in bed. So the tendency is to want to go back to bed. Like I’m so tired. I just woke up, but I want to go back to bed like I’m so tired. Or I’m going to watch eight hours of tv today and the depression prevention plan is you may take a nap, but not in bed. You could only spend sleeping time in bed and limiting TV, which means you gotta figure out other stuff to do. At one point I made a whole list of things I could do other than watch TV, play a game, do a craft, draw, paint a room. That’s a great task, right, if you can do that.

There’s a guy I followed on TikTok who made ceramics. He made miniature ceramics. That would take you away from TV. Another guy made little acorn people. I loved these little acorn people and then he would put them out in the woods and set up a motion sensitive camera and then get pictures of like animals interacting with the acorn people. I love it. I am not anti-social media, by the way. I love TikTok.

I always called it my fun account because I did not let anyone I know follow me and I didn’t follow anyone that I actually know. Because I wanted to follow. Like little artsy, craftsy stuff “we rate dogs.” That’s a fantastic account. I think he’s on Instagram too. I’d love seeing animals and cottages and artsy stuff like that, We Rate Dogs was really about. I don’t want you to think it was a bad account. It was like he picked five dogs of the week to show the funny stuff they did. That’s actually a non-profit where they donate the money to support homeless dogs surgeries, shelter dogs and shelters that type of thing medical care for them. He looked legit.

So if you want to look him up, you just look up we Rate Dogs. You can buy their cute little merch which is say hi to your dog, which I think is so funny. Some of my neighbors I actually never knew their first names, but I knew their dog’s names Because when we met it’s like, oh, I don’t know why you don’t encode the owner’s names. I mean, some of them I knew over time, but some of them. I really didn’t, I just knew their dog’s names, like Mimi, who Zoe did not get along with, oddly enough. I don’t know what happened there, but she did not like Mimi. She loved Carmela, that was her bestie.

Anyway, looking at social media that makes your heart happy. That could be on your plan. If you have professional accounts, you could always make another account that’s just for fun, which I call the fun account.

Quiet activities are on some people’s list, like meditating. Meditating I do anyway, so it’s not really on my depression prevention list. But meditating, yoga, stretching, foam rolling.

Eating well is on some people’s list, because in depression, with anxiety too, if your tendency is to eat or you have an eating disorder, you’ve got to keep an eye on that if depressive feelings are creeping up. So it’s like eating healthy foods could be on your plan, making sure you eat a variety of foods if that’s possible for you. I know some people are on pretty strict diets. So all of these are ideas for you. It’s like things that you know are good for you and things that you feel like you can do to help prevent depression. Some of them are easier than others, but hopefully I’ve given you enough ideas that you can make your own list.

If this happens for you, I will say this time it does feel a little bit different. I attribute that to core healing hypnosis that I did in 2018 and got trained in how to do it, so I’ve been doing that type of hypnosis since then and I love that kind of work. It’s transformational work because it does address deeper feelings.

Depression is arising from a deeper feeling of hopelessness or I’m not good enough or I can’t. I can’t do this, I don’t. I don’t have the energy, I don’t have the skills, I don’t have the capabilities. None of that is present this time. Actually, quite the opposite. Like I can do this, I am making progress. I am capable of staying centered through big changes. Everything I’m doing right now is in service of who I’m becoming and I am creating a more sustainable life for myself and my daughters.

When you free up money as a parent, in my mind, you’re freeing up some of that to help your children when they need it. My kids do still need some help. You have one who’s 23 and one who’s 19. The 19-year-old needs a lot of help actually because she’s pretty ill right now with GI problems and what’s looking like is POTS that her new GI doctor actually suggested. Some mild POTS so I want more resources to help her, not less. She’s about to do a new treatment called IB STEM S-T-I-M that hopefully is going to help her GI problems a lot. It’s supposed to help POTS as well, so we’re very excited about that. That’s starting, hopefully in a couple of weeks.

We’re still trying to get insurance approval, but anyway, my point is that all of these good beliefs are underneath this time. So it’s like the feelings are there. I’m going through a big change. I don’t have the dog anymore. I love the dog, so, so much. And I’m addressing the feelings like, okay, these feelings are here. Let me pull out my depression prevention plan. So I hope the same for you.

Peace from South Florida.

P.S. So about 50% of my practice was online already, but I saw about 50% in my office in Hollywood Florida, south Florida. I won’t immediately open an in-person office in Jacksonville, because I’m not sure I’m going to stay there. Honestly, we’re trying it out and seeing what it’s like, so everything will go online.

I’ve done hypnosis online far before the pandemic. It’s just as effective.

But there is something about being in person with therapy. That is a different experience. So I totally get when someone wants in-person therapy. When I saw a therapist earlier last year I wanted in-person. Actually, there’s a feeling of privacy, of being in an office away from everything. That is really nice. So, anyway, just thought I’d let you know that that’s the end of my PS. And again from South Florida, peace out.

Transcribed by https://podium.page